Participation in Action: Young advisers organise trips and train future volunteers

Provider: StreetGames

Name: Young Advisers scheme

In October last year StreetGames, a charity that helps disadvantaged communities engage in sport, held a residential for 70 of its young volunteers at the Brathay Trust's estate in the Lake District, which involved a range of activities including team building exercises, high rope challenges, and a movie night.

The three-day personal development and leadership residential was organised and delivered by six young people - also known as young advisers - who have all previously experienced a StreetGames residential and wanted to create a relaxed and fun environment for new volunteers to attend.

The young advisers group has been running for the past 10 years and was developed because the charity did not want a "static" and formal youth board, explains John Downes, head of youth and sport. "We started with a group of 10 or 15 young people and looked at organising a youth conference," he says.

"We asked ourselves: how can we work with young people in a less formal and more fluid way?"

There is now a pool of around 300 young people aged 18 and older that act as StreetGames young advisers. Downes explains that the charity does not "cherry pick" any of the young people but instead asks the young volunteers whether they would be interested in joining the advisers team following their residential to try and test new opportunities.

Volunteers have the opportunity to design, plan, and deliver the next residential, with each based on a different theme and including different activities, dependent on the group in charge.

"October's residential was Disney themed," Downes says. "It is simple things like picking the team names but they also do the welcome speeches, the rules, and they get to see what it is like to be on the staffing and organising side of a residential."

Other initiatives have included a group of 20 advisers working with StreetGames on their safeguarding practices at events and festivals during Stop, Look, Listen safeguarding week.

Advisers have also organised and delivered sports and summer camps during major sporting events including the World Athletics Championships in Birmingham. During the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, 18 advisers delivered a sports camp to around 800 young people over a 12-day period.

Downes explains that young people can "dip in and out" of being an adviser. This encourages young people who have study or work commitments to still participate. He adds that the benefits to being a young advisor are "huge".

"You get an influx of people saying they want to come back [following their residential]," he says. "They [the advisers] inspire the others to come forward.

"There is also a huge confidence and skills boost and the organisational learning and transferable skills they learn can be taken into other areas of work. Some have taken the jobs of their old mentors, others are now at university, and some have got full-time jobs in sport."

There are now plans in place for a young volunteer residential to take place in February at the Green Park site in Aylesbury. Young advisers are also going to be holding a summer camp in conjunction with the World Para Athletics Championship in London.

"We are always looking to work with partners to give young people the opportunity to shape programmes but as an organisation we are also looking at how young people can shape our work and our offer," Downes adds.

More from: http://www.streetgames.org